American sailing ship sinks in North Atlantic and fifty-three passengers and crew drown

The 2500-ton New York sailing ship Middlesex left Liverpool for her home port on February 18, 1861 with 33 crew and 35 passengers.  In a gale, her cargo shifted and the ship sank.  The captain and fourteen men among the crew and passengers escaped aboard the one surviving boat but the remaining 53 people were drowned.  After days in heavy seas, the survivors reached inhabited islands off south-west Ireland and were rescued.  (By John Osborne) 
Source Citation
Chronicle, The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1861 (London: F. & J. Rivington, 1862), p. 37-38.
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    Crime/Disasters
    How to Cite This Page: "American sailing ship sinks in North Atlantic and fifty-three passengers and crew drown," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/35752.